Me And Castro

Workout date: 1/9/17

While I may have gotten a little too giddy about my prospects for completing 5 handstand push-ups in a row just because I got two the other day, there are other goals on my 2017 list which have felt within reach for a while.  Among them is a 245 pound clean and jerk.  My best clean and jerk sits at 225 pounds, but I have done a squat clean of 235 pounds and a jerk of 235 pounds.  Those lifts happened months apart, but they happened.  They show that I have the ability to get a clean and jerk of 235 pounds, which would put me a wee 10 pounds shy of my goal.  I've done a lot of work with squat cleans recently and that has helped me go from 225 to 230 to 235.  My jerk has remained at 235 because I haven't tested it in a while, but I've always felt I could do more than that.  Monday was my opportunity to show that I could put the two together.

But first...yes, it's the mandatory weight update.  Only two more weeks to go.  This week's results:

Original weigh-in:  213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in:  207.0 pounds
This week's weigh-in:  208.8 pounds

The fluctuations continue.  I think it's safe to say that my weight has leveled out in the 207-208 range.  It's also safe to say that this four-month attempt to eat better has grown tiresome.  I think there are some changes in my diet that will stick, but there are also some other things that I've gone without that I'd really like to include back in my meal rotation.

Coach Giulz had an even dozen athletes in attendance for her 6:30 class.  As we went through some progressions for the clean and jerk, we all needed our own barbell.  There was just enough space for everyone with 12 barbells in use.  I was pretty sure that we'd soon be consolidating though.  The warmup came to an end and I looked over at Matt B.  We were thinking the same thing: might as well work together.  We put one of the barbells away and started discussing how we were going to approach the lifts with our shared barbell.

I had grabbed some 35 pound plates so that we could begin with 115 pounds.  Technically we were supposed to make at least 7 attempts and I was thinking along the lines of 115-135-155-175-195-215-230.  Matt brought over some 25 pound plates after I had already begun loading the 35 pound plates on to the barbell.  I wasn't sure if he had wanted to start with 95 pounds, but he said he was cool with 115 for the first lift.  We kept the 25 pound plates close by anyway.

Matt went first and power cleaned 115 like it was nothing before easily jerking the weight overhead.  I stepped up to the barbell right afterward, choosing to squat clean the weight before jerking it.  This would become the pattern for the two of us.  Matt had little interest in doing squat cleans.  He's so damn strong that he didn't really need to.  As for me, I've been adamant about getting as much practice as possible with my squat clean, so I was going to perform them even at these lighter weights where I would have been comfortable with a power clean.  Matt grabbed some 45 pound plates and we moved up to 135.  Matt had another easy power clean and jerk, I had another easy squat clean and jerk.  Same story on our next lifts at 155.

We had thrown on some 10 pound plates for that lift at 155 and we could have kept doing that to move up in 20 pound increments.  But these lifts were super easy for Matt and he looked extremely bored having to slowly progress to the weights that would actually be challenging.  So I looked at him and asked if he wanted to just take off the 10 pound plates and throw on those 25 pound plates he had brought over at the beginning.  That would be a 30 pound jump, but it would get us to 185, a weight that Matt might find a little more interesting.  Matt shook his head yes, so we went up to 185.  He was still refusing to squat clean, but he was successful nonetheless.  185 was the point for me where the squat cleans began to have some sting in them.  I could catch them in the bottom, but I didn't just bounce right back up.  It was a slow rise back to the standing position before completing the jerk.

We added those 10 pound plates back on to move up to 205.  Matt completed the clean and jerk without any anxious moments.  I took care of my squat clean, but my jerk was terrible.  It was like a push jerk/split jerk hybrid.  I remembered to split my legs, but they didn't separate very far from each other.  I successfully got the barbell overhead, but after I dropped it, Matt asked me what the heck that was.  I didn't have an answer.  It was like my brain froze mid-jerk.

I had told Matt prior to starting that my goal was 230 and he said that he'd like to get 230 as well.  After completing 205, we could have made two tiny jumps to get there or we could have approached it the way we did after 155, when we simply said screw it and made a larger jump.  I suspected we'd reach the same conclusion here and we did.  Let's just take on 230 and, if we don't get it the first time, we can take several attempts at it.  Matt led things off again and I thought for sure we had reached the point where he'd need to squat clean.  Nope.  He powered that barbell up to his shoulders, then did a split jerk to get it overhead.  Told you he was strong.  I gave him crap about not failing at least one time because now there was a lot of pressure on me to get 230 on my first attempt.  I was nervous, but I was also experiencing good vibes from seeing Matt get 230.  I tried the squat clean and it was very heavy.  I did catch it though.  It was a struggle to get out of the bottom, but stand it up I did.  The adrenaline was pumping like crazy now.  It was PR time.  The clean was the hard part.  Just had to jerk this overhead and I would match what Matt did.

And...I failed.  That goofy jerk I did at 205 was a sign of things to come.  For whatever reason, I didn't do a proper split jerk again.  I was almost able to make it work as I had done with 205, but I couldn't hold it together.  That was aggravating.  Managed the harder part, screwed up the easier part. What was wrong with me?  I got some rest while loading the barbell and then watching Matt take on 240.  We had finally reached a weight that he could not power clean.  He tried to do a partial squat, but it wasn't enough.  The barbell was certainly high enough that he could have gotten it with a squat clean, but Matt had zero interest in going that low.  Same thing would happen on his second attempt at 240.

As for me, I caught 230 in the bottom of the squat on my second attempt, but I was unable to stand it up.  Matt noticed that my knees were bucking inwards as I tried to stand, so I made a mental note to really press my knees out on my third and final attempt.  All of my squat clean practice continued to pay dividends as I caught 230 in the bottom of the squat for the 3rd straight time.  I pushed my hips forward, my knees out, and slowly I rose to standing position once again.  Okay dummy, you know how to do a split jerk, let's not repeat your last two efforts.  I took my time, made sure everything felt right, and then I went for it.  Somehow I performed my worst jerk yet.  I dropped so low that Giulz said it looked like I was performing a squat jerk, which is essentially dropping to the bottom of the squat a second time and completing the second half of an overhead squat.  That was not what I was attempting to do.  As I did with the first attempt, I fought it for a couple of seconds before bailing.  230 was not in the cards for me today.  Final score: 205.

The truest maxim there is in Crossfit is the following: if you don't keep practicing a skill, that skill will erode away.  Doesn't matter how easy it came to you at one point in time.  I used to be much more confident in my jerk than my squat clean, but it seems like my squat clean is now more reliable than my jerk, simply because I practice it more.  If I put some time in with my jerk, I can probably get 230 or 235.  Until I do that though, my best clean and jerk will remain at 225.

We had two cash outs with the first one being lightning quick.  We were supposed to take 60% of our 1RM clean and jerk and string together 10 reps at that weight as fast as we could.  Letting go of the barbell was a no-no.  Even though I only got 205 during the workout, I knew I could get 225, so 60% got me to 135.  Essentially I was testing out whether I could hold on for the first 10 reps of Grace.  My first set during Grace typically is less than 10 reps, so it would be interesting to see if I could go fast and hold on for that long.  I grabbed a new barbell, put on 135, and took up residence in the small area in front of Matt.  We faced each other during this sprint.  Giulz said go and I didn't waste any time in messing up.  I botched the first clean and had to re-grip it before I could do the jerk.  Matt was already on his second rep by the time I got my barbell overhead the first time.  After that, we kept the same pace.  I was able to hold on for all 10 reps, something to keep in mind the next time Grace shows up in the programming.  Matt did his 10 reps in 30 seconds, I did mine in 32 seconds.

While everyone was busy putting away their barbells, I had a chance to talk with Aimee about some of the missing info for the Nutrition Challenge.  She had sent me some of it via text, but there were still quite a few participants that I didn't have data on.  She thought she had sent me everything.  She looked worried as she took out her phone. "I hope I sent it to the right Dave", she began, "because you and Castro are the only Daves in my phone."  That's an interesting spectrum there.  When she texts "Dave", it either goes to the sweaty guy in her gym or the director of the Crossfit Games.  (She was relieved to find that she hadn't mistakenly sent the data to Castro.)

The second cash out was completing 3 rounds of 15 sit-ups on the GHD machine.  With a limited number of GHD machines available, we had time to kill as classmates took their turn doing sit-ups.  That is when I found out that Matt had gotten a PR with his 230 pound clean and jerk.  He didn't even need to squat clean it.  Just ripped it off the floor, got it overhead, and didn't make a big deal out of the fact that he had never done that much before.  I suck at celebrating, but you better believe there will be some awkward excitement when I finally get 230.  Matt and I shared a GHD with Mike C and Bryan and the four of us all got through 3 rounds of 15 sit-ups.  For me, the first two rounds weren't too bad as I can move pretty quickly on the GHD machine.  I felt it more in the third round and my pace slowed about midway through it, but I got to 15 reps.

That should have been it for the evening, but part of me wanted to get some double under practice in. As I took my rope out of my bag, Danielle saw me and asked if I wanted to join her and Ashley during their post-workout workout.  The two of them have caught the competition bug and, as a result, they are doing additional workouts quite frequently.  Tonight, their nightcap would be 3 rounds of 20 calories on the assault bike and 60 double unders.  That didn't sound awful to me.  I'm fonder of the assault bike than most and I was going to practice double unders anyway.  Count me in!

I figured I would be quicker than the two of them on the assault bike.  The key was whether I could hold that lead when it came to the double unders.  Rather than reset one of the clocks, we agreed to start when one of the running clocks hit 7:00.  Then we were on our way.  I had a strong but not suicidal pace on the bike for the first round and I was the first one to get over to my jump rope.  We were all going to face the bikes while we jumped rope, so I could see the girls progress as I got ready to start my double unders.  First set?  Zero.  Second set?  Nada.  Third set?  It was like I didn't know how to do double unders at all.  Three attempts had netted me zero reps.  Making things worse, Ashley had just come off of her bike.  She had caught up to me without even twirling her jump rope.

I took a second to think about what I was doing wrong.  My mind drifted to Keithie's instructions for double unders.  He always says you should be able to hear the rhythm of the double unders.  Jump, click, click.  Jump, click, click.  I realized that I was jumping, but I wasn't hearing any clicking.  That meant my rope wasn't hitting the floor.  On my next attempt, I made a concerted effort to have my rope hit the floor.  I knocked out a set of nearly 30 in a row.  Both Ashley and Danielle were jumping rope with me now, but I had regained my lead.  I made it to 60 reps and headed back to my bike.

The second round on the bike wasn't fun, but I'm pretty good at grinding away calories on the bike.  When I came back to the jump rope, I didn't experience the same frustrations that I had in my first round.  My sets were smaller as my legs grew tired, but I stayed on it.  Made it to round three and told myself that the worst of the pain was going to be on those final 20 calories on the bike.  I pushed through the pain as best as I could and was very relieved when it was over with.  I rewarded myself with a break before I began the last set of double unders.  The girls hadn't been on their bikes very long, so I knew my lead was safe as long as I didn't totally botch this round.  For my first set, I strung 27 reps in a row.  I needed two more sets to get to 60 and then I was done.  Final time: 10:07.

If I was going to keep my weight in that 207-208 range, I figured it didn't hurt to take on an extra workout.  That being said, I had packed in a lot into this one evening.  It was time to head home and rest up for tomorrow.

Tuesday preview: Dudes doing dubs.  And way too many burpees.